Multiple Mondays - Holiday Update Edition

Hi, everyone. This is an odd edition of Multiple Mondays. I'm going to update a lot of older MM posts with new versions from new artists.

First, let's start with the suggestions from Boy Howdy. He runs Cover Lay Down, the cover blog I'd most like to run if I weren't so dang lazy. In the comments section here last year, he recommended Amy Kuney's (video) take on "River" and Rosie Thomas' cover of "Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song)." They're both wonderful, magical Christmas tracks -- Rosie Thomas does something unexpected and unlikely: she takes a decades-old novelty song and transforms it into something meaningful and, yes, significant.

Remember "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky?" Sure you do. Well, REM want to play you a version called "(Ghost) Reindeer In The Sky."

Then, we'll hear two more versions of Charles Brown's classic "Merry Christmas Baby." First, Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore growls his way through a bluesy 1971 take on it. Then, Sweden's Krystoffer Ragnstam knocks the song out of the park. If 1971 were a lot weirder, and you lived in a college town, this is the type of blues-pop fusion you could've heard in that alternate universe.

As always, I recommend the zipfile, but you can cherrypick if you insist.

Zipfile

1. Amy Kuney - River 1 2
2. Rosie Thomas - Christmas Don't Be Late 1 2
3. REM - Ghost Reindeer In The Sky 1 2
4. Rudy Ray Moore - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2
5. Krystoffer Ragnstam - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2

Guestpost: The Chipmunk Song

My good friend Ken is a record-collecting maniac. I met him through our work on Muppet Wiki, where he spent a LONG time helping to whip the record categories into shape. He knows far more than any one person should about records, especially the ones made for kids, and so for his guestpost here he decided to take you on a musical history trip...

50 years ago today, on December 22, 1958, "The Chipmunk Song" by The Chipmunks with David Seville went to #1, and stayed there for 4 weeks. David Seville (born Ross Bagdasarian) had been recording music at Liberty Records for a few years (mostly pop instrumentals), when in 1958 he had the idea for a novelty record using sped-up vocals. The result was "Witch Doctor", which hit #1 for 3 weeks on April 28, 1958. For a follow-up, he conceived the idea of 3 harmonizing chipmunk brothers singing about what they wanted for Christmas. The finished record became the fastest selling single in history until the arrival of the Beatles. This led to more Chipmunk singles and albums, as well as a prime-time cartoon show. For the last half century, the song has never been out of print, and has appeared in virtually every possible format: 78's, 45's, LP's, cassettes, reel-to-reels, 8-tracks, CD's, and downloads. The Chipmunks also became instantly recognized cartoon characters on all kinds of merchandise, ranking up there with Disney characters, the Muppets, and the Peanuts gang. Bagdasarian died in 1972, but his son and daughter-in-law have kept his memory alive, by creating new Chipmunk cartoons, as well as reissuing the old songs.

Mark here again. Since it's a Monday, and I can't help myself, I've included three more versions of this song. After the original version, you hear a clip of the song at half-speed, so you can hear just how Bagdasarian acted the three parts. Then, just for giggles, I sped it up a lot, so David Seville sounds like a Chipmunk himself. Finally, The Lost Dogs bring in some recording tricks of their own, and manage to make new, genuinely funny comedy out of a decades-old novelty song.

Link to Zipfile
Buy Chipmunk swag from Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.'s site